Whitefriars College has winning blend of academics and nature

'Big, friendly'. That was how one of the Hong Kong students at Whitefriars College, on the outskirts of Melbourne, chose to describe his college when asked to sum it up in two words.

Whitefriars College nestles amid 20 hectares of bushland at Donvale, in Melbourne's northeastern suburbs, 20 kilometres from the Central Business District.

A year ago, it began to accept international students. Among the 1,000 boys who attend Whitefriars are 17 overseas students, mostly from Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand.

Evelyn Diradji, director of the college's international student programme, said the college planned to expand its overseas intake slowly and steadily over the next five years, until there were about 50 international students.

Whitefriars was founded in 1961 by the Carmelite Order and, although it is a Catholic college, students of all religious persuasions are welcome. It enjoyed a good reputation in both the academic and business worlds, Ms Diradji said. It had a broad and flexible curriculum ensuring the interests and talents of students were well catered for.

'Traditionally, the college has been very strong in the maths and sciences,' she said. 'But now we have developed a good computer and information technology centre. From next year, all Year Seven students will have notebook computers. This will be expanded over the next six years until every student in every year has one.' She said the college was popular with some Hong Kong parents because it did not have too big a component of Hong Kong students, so their children blended in faster with Australians.

'There are a lot of opportunities here,' she said. 'One of our Hong Kong boys has done well in the performing arts. We have our own theatre which seats 250 and he has appeared in leading roles in school productions.